Flashback: Habs made Garry Monahan historic first draft pick in 1963

Thirty young men were called to the floor of the Bell Centre on Friday night, the simple act of pulling on a hockey jersey and cap forever changing their lives.

The two-day, seven-round NHL entry draft began with a made-for-TV gala, every drop of suspense wrung from all 30 first-round selections that launched the proceedings.

Garry Monahan would like to tell you he remembers the league’s first amateur draft, held on June 5, 1963 at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel. He was the Canadiens’ No. 1 choice, thus the first-ever pick in the NHL’s organized dispersal of young talent.

But Monahan, 62, recalls nothing of it, despite the history it made. This was the first time teams could draft priority rights to junior-age amateur players, who until then belonged to the NHL club that sponsored their junior or minor-league teams.

The Montreal Star devoted four brief paragraphs to the ’63 amateur draft, in which 21 players total (all Canadians) were selected by the NHL’s six clubs. The Gazette ignored it entirely.

Not that there was much to cover. The six clubs held the draft behind closed doors and it wasn’t until some days later that the names of the drafted 16-year-olds, and the teams on which they played, were announced.

There were few blue-chip prospects in the pool that June and for a few years to come, most of the best young players already tied to NHL clubs by way of junior-team sponsorship or signed C-form commitment.

And the ’63 amateur draft, at the tail end of three days of NHL meetings, took a back seat both to a quiet inter- league draft that preceded it and a blockbuster Canadiens trade, Montreal sending goaler Jacques Plante and forwards Don Marshall and Phil Goyette to the New York Rangers for goalie Gump Worsley and forwards Dave Balon, Len Ronson and Leon Rochefort.

“I was 16 at the time. What did I know?” Monahan says today of being the NHL’s milestone No. 1 selection. “I didn’t know anything. I didn’t know there was a draft. Certainly my parents and my older brother didn’t know.

“The phone rang after the fact, and I don’t even remember if it was the next day or the next week. We were all sort of flabbergasted.”

Monahan’s father, Patrick, took the call from incoming Canadiens general manager Sam Pollock, listened to the news that his son had just been drafted by Montreal, then asked Pollock what the word “draft” meant.

But it was Garry the Canadiens had selected, and soon here came Pollock and Scotty Bowman, then the Canadiens’ head scout for eastern Canada, pulling into the Monahan driveway in Toronto-suburban Scarborough. For this, he remembers, his family became instant celebrities.

The two executives laid out Monahan’s options: play with the Junior A Peterborough Petes, then managed by the Canadiens, or join the Baby Habs in Montreal. Monahan’s father encouraged Garry to finish up at St. Michael’s College School in Toronto, then play with the Petes.

“I’d been thinking: ‘I’m a third-line guy. Drafted? What the hell is this? I’m not very good,’ ” Monahan recalls, saying he was more bewildered than disappointed to be drafted by the Canadiens while growing up in the heart of Maple Leafs country.

In fact, hockey hadn’t even been on the radar of the teenager, who tried out for the St. Mike’s bantam club on a whim and made it. He’d always skated two years ahead of himself as a tag-along on Pat’s minor-league teams, a third-liner at best.

Only at 19, in his third and final season with the powerhouse Petes, did Monahan emerge from the shadows, scoring 30 goals and 54 assists in 47 games.

He graduated from the Petes in the spring of 1967 and reported “scared skinny” that fall to the Canadiens’ Forum training camp, in the first season of an expanded NHL. Monahan recalls dorm-style living with maybe 20 fellow hopefuls in the windowless basement of the downtown Martinique Hotel, battling with fellow rookie Jacques Lemaire for the team’s fourth spot at centre.

He was one of the few left standing when camp broke and bodies were farmed to the Central league’s Houston Apollos or back to their junior clubs, “and it was then that it became very intimidating, with Toe Blake the coach and Jean Béliveau the captain.”

Monahan was paid $8,000 to sign and $10,000 for the season, riches he’d never imagined. His wife-to-be, Barbara, was earning $4,000 as a teacher.

He spent more time with Houston than Montreal during his two seasons here, though he recalls practising through the playoffs with the Canadiens as they won their 15th and 16th Stanley Cups.

There were tough moments, but even those are fond memories.

Monahan remembers largely fending for himself, nearly missing an overnight train to New York then unknowingly crawling into a lower berth that was reserved for Béliveau.

He recalls hobbling lamely onto a team bus, on a foot nearly broken, then being verbally undressed by Blake for arriving 30 seconds late.

By now, Lemaire was on his way to stardom and Monahan was a commodity. Pollock packaged him to Detroit with Doug Piper for Peter Mahovlich, a former teammate at St. Mike’s who went second to the Red Wings in the 1963 draft, and Bart Crashley on June 6, 1969.

It was six years and a day after Pollock had drafted Monahan into the NHL.

“Sammy finally realized his mistake,” he jokes, “so he traded me for Peter.”

Molded into an efficient checking centre, Monahan would play 734 NHL games for Detroit, Toronto and Vancouver before enjoying three seasons in Japan, absorbing a new culture while skating for a company team in Tokyo.

He and Barbara, who would lose her battle to cancer, finally settled back in West Vancouver, where he did radio work for the Canucks and branched out into stock brokerage and, his current career, real estate. His three sons have given him two grandchildren.

Through the years, Monahan hasn’t set an alarm to watch the NHL’s annual entry draft.

But he tuned in Friday night when another Torontonian was chosen No. 1 overall in a Montreal ceremony that was a little flashier than his own of 1963.

“Clearly a big change from my experience,” he suggests.

And there would be no need for anyone to phone Joe Tavares to advise him about the future of his son, John.

—

Monahan’s first shift lasted 10 secondsDebut in 1967 marked by getting steamrolled by Bruins’ Eddie Shack,
being hit in the face by a puck

Garry Monahan vividly remembers his National Hockey League début, which is remarkable given that he was knocked unconscious about a dozen seconds into it.

The Canadiens had made Monahan, then 16, their first selection in the NHL’s historic first amateur draft in June 1963. He arrived in Montreal for training camp four autumns later, having played one season at St. Michael’s College School in Toronto and three more with the major-junior Peterborough Petes, which in the mid-’70s would send Bob Gainey and Doug Jarvis to the Habs.

Monahan latched on with the Canadiens organization in the autumn of 1967, shuttling between Montreal and the club’s Central Professional farm team, the Houston Apollos. He’d play only 11 games that season with the Canadiens, who were blessed at centre with captain Jean Béliveau, Henri Richard, Ralph Backstrom and rookie Jacques Lemaire.

It was Oct. 21, 1967 at the Forum, the first time Monahan had been dressed for a regular-season game, and he recalls warming the end of the bench as the Canadiens pulled away from the Boston Bruins. With Montreal up by a few goals late in the game, Monahan felt the hand of coach Toe Blake on his back.

“I’d been on the bench for two and a half periods when Toe came down and said: ‘Monahan, take off Béliveau,’ ” he said, laughing at the memory. “I climbed over the boards, already out of breath, my legs like ice, and I’m panting just getting to the faceoff circle. I say: ‘Okay, Jean, take a rest.’

“Ten seconds later, I have the puck behind my own net, for some reason. I’m a centreman, so I’m not sure why I’m back there.”

He was sure, however, that he was about to be freight-trained by Boston newcomer Eddie Shack, so he fired the puck along the boards to a teammate at the blue line. Monahan braced for impact, he and Shack crumpling together in a heap.

But the young Canadien scrambled to his skates, “again out of breath, from nerves.”

Whoever had received Monahan’s pass at the blue line decided to return it, with some force, high along the glass. The puck was felt before it was ever seen.

“It hit me flat, on the cheekbone near the bridge of my nose, and cut me in three different places,” he said. “Down I went. I remember dropping my gloves. There was (defenceman) J.C. Tremblay, and I recall grabbing at his sweater as I sunk to my knees, out cold.

“They dragged me off after a shift of about 10 seconds. That was it.”

The injury looked worse than it was, but its timing was dreadful. A day or two later, a photographer from the Topps company arrived at the Forum to shoot that season’s bubblegum cards.

Monahan, who would wear No. 20 for each of his 11 Canadiens games that season and No. 11 for his final three games in 1968-69, was inexplicably given a grab-bag of equipment for the photo.

With an ugly red welt beneath his left eye, Photoshop not yet invented, he was snapped in Yvan Cournoyer’s No. 12 jersey while wearing Gilles Tremblay’s No. 5 gloves to hold a stick stencilled with Dick Duff’s No. 8.

Monahan still has the card today somewhere in his West Vancouver home, “probably in the attic.”

So what, he figures, if the card might fetch just 20 bucks in near-mint condition. Or that Topps forgot an “r” in his first name.

The memories of his NHL début with the Canadiens are what matter most. There’s no putting a price on “okay, Jean, take a rest.”

169 Comments

Winnipeg’s first-round pick will be given a Black and Grey NHL Sweater apparently, the new ownership group apparently still can’t decide what to name the franchise other than Jets so they can begin their greedy cash grab on what’s likely going to be lousy apparel if it’s taking them this long to get a design up for their team.

My thoughts exactly. I understand that they don’t want to rush to a decision and make a mistake. But all reports indicate that they’ve been working toward getting a franchise for a number of years. How can they not have had a group working on potential logo design, name or jerseys? And how can this man preach that he’s all about the fans and Winnipeg and ignore the overwhelming majority who want to see them back as the Jets. Just pay for the name. Alienating the fan base wouldn’t be a good start to the year.

Just to add somthing to the Poo conversation… I understand that he was a high draft pick and because of that the expectations are high but give the guy some slack… he spent most of the year in JM’s dog house and played 4th/3rd line minutes and yet he scored 13 goals and 17 assists… what more can u expect from a guy playing those minutes? He did not get a real chance on the top 2 lines and never got any PP minutes…
if you are not gonna put him on the top line put him on a 3rd line with offensive minded players and watch him produce…
I say:
Pouliot – DD – Darche OR Pouliot – Eller – Kostytsin

Pass on Morrow. The last thing the Habs need is to pick a defenseman. The team needs to find a #1 centre or another power forward. Something that can’t be found via trade or costs too much in the UFA market.

Allow me to apologize for the presumption. But it’s no more of a stretch to say that Morrow is the next Markov than it is to say that Scheifele is the next Lecavalier or Pacioretty, that Oleksiak is the next Chara or that Puempel is the next Cammalleri.

These players draw comparisons in style of play, not necessarily hall of fame or all-star credentials.

The Habs will need a good to elite two way defenseman who can play the left side in five years and Mac Bennett doesn’t project as that kind of player. More like a Weber without the shot.

Question to both TomNickle and SeriousFan, since both are good with prospects, what are your thoughts on Brandon Saad, Habs don’t have much depth on LW, big bodied, people have him in the 15-20 range, or possibly Mark McNeill?

Brandon Saad is flagged pretty badly for having a lack of a physical game or willingness to take hits from what I’ve read. I know MTL needs scoring talent but we need a guy who isn’t a total marshmellow.

Throw in Matt Puempel. People say we need to score more 5-on-5, there are few players with natural scoring talent like Puempel after 5th overall in this draft. Not overly gritty, but he does go straight to the hard areas to get goals.

I was thinking of bringing back the dog during the season, using my pic during off season. Something like that. I like the dog too but I feel somehow more responsible to what I say when it’s my picture and I like that reminder.

Winnipeg has chosen Claude Noel as their first head coach and the bottom feeding continues.

I feel terrible for those fans who are having their hopes and expectations raised with each passing day. It seems their owner is more interested in hiring men who will do what he wants rather than men who will do the best job.

Other than Chevaldayoff, all they’re doing is bringing Moose personnel up to the NHL. Not a bright move in my opinion. There’s a reason that the guys they’ve brought up have been in the minor leagues for twenty years. Their team president started out as an equipment manager.

Having Vancouver’s draft picks like Hodgson, Schneider, Sweatt, Baumgartner, Schroeder, Bolduc, Oreskovich and other players like Tanev, Tambellini and Oberg can make the job of the AHL coach a lot easier.

They aren’t hiring people who have had success in the NHL, but rather people who have toiled in mediocrity in the AHL.

No particular reason. I just feel bad for those fans who’ve been teased for the better part of a decade, after having their franchise stolen from them of course. And now it would appear that they’ll be under incompetent management.

I see the knives are out already – oh wait, this is a Montreal Web site. Going to have trouble having two teams to support, I guess.

In defense of Noel, he’s a good coach with a ton of experience, and Heisinger was an equipment manager who’s worked his way up the ladder. Used to be that was the way you did it in business.

And the Moose weren’t mediocre in the AHL – they were one of the best. Having the Nucks as the Mother Ship wasn’t easy because all those great prospects were basically here for a cup of coffee on their way up.

Tom, you’re digging yourself a big pile of crow. Save room for it, because you’ll have to start eating by December if you want to finish it before someone else wins the Stanley Cup.

If you had ever watching or followed the Moose, or knew anything about the people being hired, or the organization as a whole, you might not talk so big. Those of us who are familiar with that team are pretty confident in these moves. You’re welcome to berate them, obviously, but you’re speaking from ignorance.

You assume I’m speaking from ignorance but their resumés speak for themselves. I’m not berating anyone. It’s very clear that Cheveldayoff’s choice for the next coach was not Noel and that Mark Chipman and Craig Heisinger pulled rank.

I’m sorry if you have an emotional attachment to the Winnipeg franchise or more specifically the Moose franchise, but these additions stink of an owner looking to bring his AHL team to the NHL and not worrying about experience at the most elite level.

Having somebody on board to mentor the new faces would be different, but he doesn’t have that.

You’re feelings are noted but yes, I’m afraid you are speaking from total ignorance. And pretending you’re an authority, which is why it comes off so poorly. Have a little humility and realize that you may not actually know what you think you know.

Having watched the Jets since the WHA days, having lived through the Moose, I can honestly say that for the first time I can remember, we actually have intelligent owners and a proper management team in place instead of a clown squad.

I’ve always been a big Habs/Peg supporter. It was easy to do because they weren’t real rivals and there was a linkage between the two that went back a long way. When Serge Savard showed up to play I was ecstatic. I spoke briefly with John Ferguson before he passed away at the AHL Allstar ceremonies – totally made my year. And I got his autograph as well.

I like both teams, I would hope that the supporters of the Habs on this site will at the very least take a wait and see attitude to what’s going on here. If all these moves turn bad well, I guess I’m just a wide eyed back country hick. But believe it or not we Manitobans do kind of know what we’re doing at some things.

Honestly I think that Ben should be given at least one more shot. When the guy works hard, he looks like that Power Forward we’ve been dying for… then again he falls on his butt more often than not. If he can turn into a 25 goal guy he’d work out well on the third line.

Has anyone put thought into an offer sheet on Bobby Butler? wouldn’t be too much money and picks going the other way… although I guess Ottawa would matach.

no one can deny his skill it’s just about his inability to tap into his limitless potential on a consistent basis. Pouliot is like the hot girl in high school who teases and flirts incessantly yet never puts out.

Everyone knows he’s got the fire deep down somewhere, they just don’t know when he will let it surface. I just hope he’s still on our team when it does happen.

It is frustrating for sure. My patience is waring thin too but I imagine that I’m stuck in the same crossroad as many others where I believe he’s played himself off the team yet still think he can turn it on and save his career.

well Latendresse has put up more points in 55 games with the wild last season then he has ever with the habs, by scoring 25 goals and adding 12 assists… not superstar material but deffinately and improvement

I hear ya, and 25 golas in 55 games is an impressive number, but this feels like an example of how stats can be misleading.

he scored those 25 goals 2 years ago, and he piled up most of them in his first 30 games in Minnesota. (I seem to remember Benny was also on fire when he first got to Montreal and potted like 10 or 15 goals right off the start.)

Last year Latendresse had 3 goals in 11 games. I wouldn’t characterize that as anything special. I know injuries are injuries, and maybe he’ll be back next year ripping it up, but I still wouldn’t charterize him as someone who’s career has sky-rocketed since we moved him.

hey, im no latendresse super fan.. just pointing out that once he was moved (and he deffinately should have been moved) he started playing better…
and it’s frustrating that he couldn’t be that power forward for us

Haven’t read much suggesting that Oleksiak would last until the 20s, although better have taken a tumble like that and Puempel going at 29th seems a stretch, when a guy has natural scoring touch teams are usually feeling pretty good about picking them up in the 1st.

What is your reasoning to picking Morrow btw? Seems a bit high for 17th from what I’ve read, you think MTL would go a bit off the board for him?

The Leafs are trying to move up in the draft and I identified the single dumbest GM in the NHL and made a fantasy trade to Brian Burke’s liking. Swapping picks and maybe some fringe prospect who will never play is something that I feel Nieuwendyk will gladly do for Burke.

Landeskong’s stock is built on that he can play in the NHL next season, but his offensive ceiling compared to Couturier’s is notably lower. Physically mature with NHL talent, but not a ceiling like Strome or Couturier.

I don’t disagree; Landeskog’s stock is not necessarily in keeping with his talent or upside. I still believe that his stock will push him above Couturier this year, however, and my comment was not about the ranking of the players’ talent. Likewise, Oleksiak’s stock is very high right now, and I see him being drafted fairly early, as teams pass by better players in favor of his size and physical maturity, much as the Rangers selected Mcgilrath far too early last year.

One of the jobs of a coach is …. well… to coach. Where there is unrealized potential, it is their job to mine it. Case in point being Jose Bautista of the Blue Jays, who was an inconsistent hitter for years and thought he had plateaued, until the batting coach and Cito Gaston (a former batting coach), who recognized his potential, worked with him on his hitting mechanics and now he’s among the best hitters in baseball.

Maybe our coaching staff have done that type of thing with Benny, but somehow I doubt it. Although I have to say that, once moved down to the bottom 6, his defensive play seemed to improve a lot over the course of the season.

Readin all the comments on my boy Poolio. Food for thought, certainly.
No need to rehash all that I said about’m; y’all know where I stand. Suffice it to say that I think he has magical talent and only needs to be properly mentally conditioned to reach his full potential. I’m talkin 40 goals, 1st-line centre potential. That’s what I see when I watch him skate, control the puck, pass and shoot. Of course, the mental conditioning aspect is easier said than done…
But at the same time, whether by conspiring events against’m or just plain bad luck, no one can say that he’s presented himself in the finest light this season.
And should he be moved, sadly, I won’t be able to complain with much vehemence.
Imo, he needs to play with a dedicated warrior who can encourage him to surpass himself and who can rebuke him without stressing him. To unleash his savoir-faire.
Mathieu Darche.
We’ve seen it with our own eyes; when he’s confident, he’s dominant. Darche makes him feel confident.

NOWHERE in there does he say he wouldn’t want to play in Mtl, Shira. He only says he PREFERS to stay in Tampa.
Yes?
“For a day, I really thought about it – what would it be like?,” Lecavalier said. “That night I slept and I woke up and I thought: you know what? I want to be in Tampa. I like Montreal and it would be very special,” he said, “but my heart is in Tampa.”
Which is a FAR CRY from your statement as “someone on record saying he did not want to play here.”
Completely erroneous in fact, yes?

ok hair splitting time I guess…
This is what I said : “Didn’t he say he did not want to play for MTL as well? ”
And I think the 2 clippings I posted support that, even if it is not word for word.
So I don’t mind saying I was not a 100% on this, and from my first statement, I admit it, as I pose it as a question.
You say you can post reports of him wanting to play in MTL, but I have not seen those.
But it’s moot, and mostly just pointless discussion, that guy won’t be moved unless we offload Gomez etc…
Hope that satisfies you, as I don’t feel I can bring much more to this!

Pouliot finds seams and scores goal scorer goals. He is clearly a head case currently and if he disappeared from the NHL map few would miss him. But he is untapped potential and it is too soon to give up on him. I’m just not sure Martin is the coach to help him find himself.

Can we please stop assuming what Pouliot does or does not deserve in terms of treatment, icetime and his role within the team.

He controls what kind of role he’s given, he controls his icetime, he controls how the coach treats him and relates to him.

Anyone remember Pacioretty saying on the radio that if he wants a top 6 role that he has to make it impossible for Martin, Muller and Pearn to demote him to a bottom six role or back to Hamilton? That’s the reason Pouliot has a passenger seat on this team, he doesn’t make it difficult to give somebody else a shot in the role that he should be filling.

If he played consistently, with effort and discipline, he would be in a top six role, but he doesn’t, so he doesn’t get the icetime afforded to those who do.

Is that unfair treatment? I don’t think so. If he wants a prominent role on this team, it’s on him to earn, not on JM to hand it out like so many bottles of gatorade.

I completely agree with Tom, and to answer Shiram, yes I would. One more year for him to prove himself a consistent threat, and he’d be easily movable during the year if it didn’t work out, or let him walk next summer.

Yes I would, because I feel that he has immense upside. If you can see his talent and I can see his talent. 29 General Managers can see his talent, and General Managers often think they can fix a player. I would look very seriously at moving him for an upgrade in our top six forward group. I would be targeting players like Setoguchi, Hartnell, Sutter, Oshie and Perron.

Surely we would have to include other asset(s) but giving Plekanec and Cammalleri a consistent right winger should be Gauthier’s #1 priority in my opinion.

How about a 3rd line role on a team with 3 scoring lines? I don’t think he needs to be on the top two lines or nowhere at all.

And, yes, to an extent he controls how the coach treats him and relates to him, but the coach also does the treating and relating. It goes both ways, not to say JM is a total flop.

Instead of arguing that it’s all up to the player, you should recognize that it’s half up to the coach and half up to the player, then show how the coach lived up to his end and the player did not. Regarding last year, you probably have a decent case. But my point is that you should give him one more shot IN SPITE of last year.

Give him a couple months even. He’s cheap enough to get rid of via trade or waivers or minors.

Does Eller start the season or does he need a month of it for rehab? If he needs a month, that’s Pouliot’s chance, playing on the 3rd line beside DD and AK (if PG gets a first-line winger). I don’t like him on the 4th so, yes, it’s 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or nowhere.

I may have it wrong, but my recollection was that Max said he had no interest in coming to the big team unless he would get top 6 minutes. At the time people were shocked by his audacity and thought that he had burned his bridges. But in the end, it all worked out for him, largely because he did back it up with excellent play.

Subban, Pacioretty, Eller, Desharnais, White all play pretty confidently out there. Andrei Kostitsyn’s defensive game has come a long way since JM came to town.

It isn’t JM’s fault Pouliot has some head issues that he can’t seem to get around. He’s been given opportunities but if this kid’s confidence is so fragile a benching makes him a more wobbly skater than most kids in minor midget than he’s not cut out for the NHL, let alone the bright lights of the Bell Centre.

Agree, Pouliot has to get over his headcase issues. I doubt he’d be benched so often if JM wasn’t suspicious he’d fall down each time he had to make a turn on the ice. It’s in his head and he has to sort it out with real off-season help because I maintain, there is no way Pouliot is this terrible a skater and at any time gone 4th overall in the draft.

He didn’t blow the doors off in junior Robert. He’s a classic high upside pick who showed enough offense to warrant a high pick. His size, speed, puck handling and offensive creativity are out of this world. But it’s on him to realize consistency like you say because he’s been given the opportunities.

These reasons, plus his price tag (which is low enough that he can be shipped out or demoted a couple months into the season if need be), plus his skill set that might eventually synthesize with the material between his ears, are why I think he should be retained.

Because he has an edge to his game, yes, but I also gave other reasons, if you read again. But anyways, that edge is what makes him able to play on the 3rd line. He’s not one of those top-6-or-bust players. What’s an improvement over him at the same price?

I’ll give you that he has alot of upside, he can bring it offencively, and he can play with that edge, but usually that only means he falls down!
Could not resist that joke.. eh.
MaxPac was a definite upgrade for him last year, for sure.
I’ll grant you that I can’t think of another player right now, but it’s not like BP achieved anything remarkable in his time in the nhl.

Remarkable is now the standard for a good 3rd line player (with the potential for more)? If he’d have done something remarkable already, we wouldn’t be talking about potential, yes? But he kind of already did something remarkable for the first few months he was here. I know it was a while ago but at least we know he can do it. It’s not like a prospect that you hope can do it. We know! As for his skating, totally embarrassing, for sure, but I think that stems from a problem in his head – decision making that results in spills – not just skating issues. Though, a leg press and a skating coach this summer wouldn’t hurt. Maybe add a shrink in there.

Future, potential, past success and present problems are common theme for Benoit Pouliot.
The truth is he is a risk in that, right now, you do not know what he will bring in a game.
I’d like to keep him, I think he could find his game and perform, but I doubt it will be with the Habs.
The guy is kind of an enigma, and those usually don’t work out well in this market.

A charming window on Habs player development, or lack thereof, in the 1960s. Not sure much has changed since. I guess Monahan didn’t make the most of his “opportunities” and management didn’t show much patience.

Speaking of player opportunities and management patience, Max Pac has played 123 games over 3 seasons as a Hab, is -9 with 49 points. Pouliot has played 118 games over 2 seasons as a Hab, is +10 with 54 points.

Pouliot beat Redden and KO’d Krejci, if he fights in his class he surprises people. WAY too early to give on the kid, he’s got hands, size, a wicked shot, time for the 13th place Adams coach of the year to step forward or is he incapable of developing young talent?

We should not give up on Pouliot…Patches has had the opportunity to come into the league the right way. He went through the AHL. Gained experience and strength. Pouliot could have used the same…it would have helped him immensely. He too good to give up on just yet.

At this point I have to figure that Benoit lipped off to the coach, it must be more of a discipline thing than skills and stats. They will trade him, he’ll get regular shifts and get into a grove and score 30 goals one day.

The BIG difference is that Pouliot did a quarter of his scoring in his first 10 games. Max has done most of his scoring in the last 30 games. One is (or was) getting much better, the other seems to have peaked two years ago and has been in the shadows since.

I agree with you. I think Pouliot should stick around. He’s getting paid what he’s worth and not more, and if he blossoms even better. Don’t ship him out to develop into an impact player elsewhere like so many have.

I was just disagreeing with the logic of saying Pouliot and Maxpac are equivalent when you lump all their stats together.

Neutral – by weakest do you mean defensively responsible? Gill and Jorges are very good at what they do. Wiz has a lot of offensive upside by is a liability on the defensive side. I’m not sure “weakest” is the description you should use.

Exactly, shows that stats don’t tell the whole story. I like Wiz and I wanted the Habs to get him last offseason when the Ducks were looking to trade him, but anyone paying more than 4M over 4 years is going to be disappointed. Plus he knows this is pay day, he won’t take any discounts unless its for a team where he can golf all season long.

A little off topic, however getting back to defence if you’re looking at stats our best 5 defencemen excluding markov are, subban, Hamrlik, wisniewski, spacek and weber Gorges and Gill are the weakest, you may look at them in a different way, myself I look at production, sure helps the forwards.

Stats are not important. Maybe points are important for an offesnive defenseman like Markov, Subban or Wisniewski but generally their job is to get the puck on their stick and out of their end and onto a forward’s stick or at least into the netural zone.